Summary
Contents
The SAGE Key Concepts series provide students with accessible and authoritative knowledge of the essential topics in a variety of disciplines. Cross-referenced throughout, the format encourages critical evaluation through understanding. Written by experienced and respected academics, the books are indispensable study aids and guides to comprehension. Key Concepts in Journalism offers a systematic and accessible introduction to the terms, processes, and effects of journalism;a combination of practical considerations with theoretical issues; and further reading suggestions. The authors bring an enormous range of experience in newspaper and broadcast journalism, at national and regional level, as well as their teaching expertise. This book will be essential reading for students in journalism, and an invaluable reference tool for their professional careers.
Infotainment
Infotainment
A neologism combining the two words ‘information’ and ‘entertainment’ to suggest the tendency for the content of news and current affairs programming to blend entertainment with information in order to make factual programmes more accessible and increase audience size and reach (Franklin, 1997: 4). Consequently, the term ‘infotainment’ appears routinely in discussions about the dumbing down debate, tabloidization and newszak. The Chief Executive of the ITC, for example, declared his disappointment and regret that ‘factual programming is on a downward path towards the triumph of infotainment above both information and entertainment’ (Glencross, 1994: 7–8), while American journalist James Fallows argues that ‘the most influential parts of the [US] media have lost sight of… the essence of real journalism … which is the search for information ...